TikTok faces nationwide ban in US as Biden prepares to sign ‘historic’ bill

Washington, April 24 - US President Joe Biden is set to sign a historic bill regarding a huge foreign aid package on Wednesday, that will also ban TikTok in the country if its China-based owner ByteDance doesn’t sell its stake within a year.

The US Senate passed the bill 79-18 on Tuesday after the House passed it with an overwhelming majority last weekend.

TikTok, which has more than 170 million American users, didn’t immediately comment but Michael Beckerman, its head of public policy for the Americas, said that the company plans to challenge the move in court.

“The stage that the bill is signed, we will move to the courts for a legal challenge,” he said in a memo to TikTok’s US staff.

The bill gives TikTok owner Bytedance nine months' time to force a sale, with a 90-day extension.

In a White House statement, Biden said that a bipartisan majority in the Senate joined the House to answer “history’s call at this critical inflection point”.

“I will sign this bill into law and address the American people as soon as it reaches my desk tomorrow so we can begin sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week,” said the US President.

“The need is urgent: for Ukraine, facing unrelenting bombardment from Russia; for Israel, which just faced unprecedented attacks from Iran; for refugees and those impacted by conflicts and natural disasters around the world, including in Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti; and for our partners seeking security and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” he elaborated.

--IANS